The Original 2RN in 1924

The history books tell us that the forerunner of RTE Radio One, 2RN began broadcasting on January 1^st 1926. The callsign 2RN had been assigned to the new Irish broadcasting station by the British post office but 2RN was not the first applied for callsign and the Little Denmark Street based station was not the first application of the 2RN callsign.

In 1924[1] when negotiations were taking place as to whether a new Irish Free State radio station should be a commercial enterprise or a state run monopoly, a Dail wireless committee heard that a group of five companies led by Andrew Belton’s Industrial Developments Limited had coalesced into the Irish Broadcasting Company. The IBC was to apply for the licence as a commercial station but a political scandal involving Belton and a committee member Darrell Figgis led to the decision to be taken that the Irish station would be state run. In anticipation of obtaining a licence, Belton applied to the British Post Office for the callsign 4RN[2] as in ‘For Erin’ but at the time there was no callsigns with the number 4 designation. Instead, the British Post Office allocated the callsign 2RN as in ‘come back TO Erin’ instead.

The issue initially was that there was already a wireless operator with the callsign 2RN. It had been assigned to David Daniel Richards, a resident at ‘Mametz House,’ 36 Bontnewydd Terrace in Trelewis, Glamorgan, Wales. Richards was a demobbed British soldier after the First World War who had acquired wireless operator knowledge at the front. To allow for the Irish station to use his callsign, in 1924 his callsign slightly changed to 2 ARN.

---

[1] Maurice Gorham’s ’40 Years of Irish Radio’.

[2] The 4RN callsign would later be used by a Queensland radio station.

A Survey of Irish Radio Stations July 2022

In a survey of Irish radio stations available analogue (FM, MW, LW, & SW), online and in apps including RadioGarden, radio.ie, Live Radio Ireland

 

The Irish Language Pirate Radio Stations

 

When pirate.ie (Read Here) posted on their excellent website about the opening of Irish language pirate radio station Saor Raidio Chonamara (Free Radio Connemara) in April 1970, as activists campaigned for an Irish language radio station, it brought to mind another attempt at Irish language pirate radio in Dublin in 1979.

Radio Na Phobail (translates as 'Radio of the Public') opened on October 16^th 1979 broadcasting on 200mMW and in a blaze of publicity. The Irish language station was operated by Conradh na Gaeilge from a garage on the southside of the city. Conradh na Gaeilge is a social and cultural organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde was its first president. Hyde would officially open Ireland’s first official radio station 2RN in 1926 and would also serve as the first President of Ireland.  

Initially the station only broadcast for a and hour each evening between 9pm and 10pm with announcements and music before this was increased to a couple of hours each evening. According to Conradh at the launch they said that the station had been set up,

‘Primarily as a protest against the continuing failure of RTE to provide an adequate service in Irish on radio and TV and to scale down the Anglo-American domination on RTE programming’.

They said that the station would be staffed by 20 members of Conradh na Gaeilge and the station was financed by several branches of the movement. They revealed in the press that the 50watt transmitter had cost nearly £1,000. The transmitter and much of the ancillary equipment was purchased from a defunct station in Galway city.

The station operator said that they would not be relying on advertising, as it was advertising that was forcing RTE to broadcast Anglo-American programmes and they saw that as anti-national.  and that the cost of running the station would be borne by the formation of a ‘Club Tacaiochta’ or ‘Support Club’.

 

Unfortunately, the station suffered from low power and technical setbacks which included frequency changes to 245m and later 215m. Raidio na Phobail had disappeared from the airwaves by the summer of 1981. Dublin would not get a Irish language only station until 1991 when Radio na Life was licensed initially on a temporary license but then acquired a full time license. Conradh na Gaeilge got back into the radio business with the launch of Radio RiRa.

 You can hear some of Radio Na Phobail test transmissions here:

 https://soundcloud.com/user-111680633/radio-an-phobail-tests?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

 In April 1970, when that group of activists began illegally broadcasting from a caravan near Rosmuc in County Galway, Raidio Saor Chonamara was a publicity stunt that shone a light on the demand for more Irish language on the airwaves to cater for the Gaeltacht areas of Ireland. The stunt worked as two years later Radio Na Gaeltachta took to the airwaves. Originally broadcasting solely to the Gaeltachta areas on the west coast of Ireland, in 1973 with the addition on an FM Network, RnaG went nationwide and continues successfully today.

 

But how far has Irish language broadcasting some. An interesting study of Irish language radio was conducted by John Walsh of NUIG and can be read HERE. There were a number of pirate operations in Dublin before Raidio Na Life came on the air in 1991 as a temporary license and a full time license was granted in 1993 and broadcasts on 106.4mhz FM. But traditional radio is now augmented by stations available online only through apps like Tune-In and DAB.

The stations available today are

Raidio Na Gaeltachta available on FM - online

Raidio na Life on FM - Radio Garden & radio.ie

Raidio Ri-Ra – Online – radio.ie - Radio Garden and the occasional temporary license from the BAI. It is a chart music station that broadcasts links in Irish. The station is operated as an arm of Conradh na Gaeilge who operated the pirate station Raidio na Phobail back in the 1980’s

Ceol FM. Available online through TuneIn and Radio Garden There are a range of sub channels available from Ceol FM including Ceol FM Energetic and Ceol FM Soothing

Raidio Siamsa available on radio garden or through its own app. According to their website

Radio Siamsa is an Irish online radio station broadcasting Irish traditional music from Dublin. We broadcast only Irish traditional music mainly Irish tunes, interspersed with occasional songs.

Saor Raidio available on FreeDAB, the pirate DAB system with scrolling text announcing it was ‘ar fud na hEireann’

 

North of the border in Belfast, Radio Failte first went on the air in the spring of 1988 with studios located in the Conway Mills complex on the Falls Road, Belfast. In January 1989, the station announced it was leaving the airwaves to pursue a license from the authorities. The station was back on the airwaves illegally broadcasting from New Year’s Day January 1993 and now located in the McAdam O’Fiach Cultural centre on the Falls Road.  but they received a RSL (Restricted Service License) from the radio authority (now known as Ofcom). They were allowed to broadcast for 28 days from Monday June 7th 1993.

Listeners were able to switch on to the opening broadcast at 7am and early birds enjoyed the lulling strains of Irish singer Albert Fry with his rendition of a Donegal folk song. A permanent licence granted 15 September 2006 and the station was officially opened by the then President of Ireland and Belfast native Mary McAleese. In October 2018 the station moved to a state-of-the-art new building on the junction of the Falls Road and the Westlink motorway designed by McGurk architects

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2018/0531/967293-raidio-failte-belfast/

Conway Mills was the home to another Belfast station that broadcast predominately in the Irish Language. Féile FM was a community radio station  based at Conway Mill in Belfast’s Gaeltacht Quarter. The station first went on air in July 1996 on a 28-day RSL, operating for the west Belfast community festival Feile na Phobail. Within two years, Féile FM began broadcasting for two four-week periods each year, providing a build-up to Feile na Phobail and St Patrick’s Day.

Over the first nine years, Féile FM broadcast on 106.2FM. This frequency changed to 107.7 FM for the radio broadcast in July/August 2005. Although the station was broadcasting from various venues, it returned to Conway Mill in February 2004 to a purpose-built studio with a full studio and modern equipment and broadcast online. In October 2005, Féile FM was granted a full-time community radio license by Ofcom. After the period of two years, Féile FM was granted permission to broadcast throughout the year as opposed to its previous restrictions on broadcasting only in the run-up to St. Patrick's Day and the West Belfast Festival. This allowed the station to provide a full-time community radio service to the entire city of Belfast. By 2007, Feile FM was on 103.2mhz but the recession forced the station to close at 4pm on Friday 25 March 2011 owing to financial difficulties and increasing overhead costs.

Sources

The Irish Independent

The Sunday Press

pirate.ie

radiowaves.fm

Radio Failte 

BAI

OfCom

1989 in Irish Radio, Reeling in the Year

	January 1989

 

 

January 1st          The airwaves are silent as pirate stations across the country close except for a small few including

Radio Dublin                                                                                                                                                                                            

January 1st          The last Morse code message sent to Sweden from the Malin Head Marconi station. In operation since  

1902, new voice communication technology had been recently installed                                                                                                                                                                                                

January 5th         The electricity and telephones are cut at Radio Dublin                                                                                                                                                                                                 

January 12th       IRTC hold public hearings for National Licence at the National Concert Hall                                                                                                                                                                                            

January 13th       2FM broadcast live from the lobby of St George's Hotel Limerick                                                                                                                                                                                              

January 14th       RTE Cork Local Radio broadcast hours extended                                                                                                                                                                                            

January 20th       The High Court orders the temporary reconnection of power and telephone to Radio Dublin                                                                                                                                                                                           

January 20th       Final date for applications to the IRTC for one of the new licences                                                                                                                                                                                             

January 20th       It’s announced that Richard Branson of Virgin Radio has purchased Radio Nova International                      

from Chris Cary                                                                                                                                                                                       

January 22nd      Gay Byrne confirms he will not be joining Century Radio                                                                                                                                                                                             

January 24th       85 applications are made for the local commercial independent franchises. 'The great radio race' begins for

the 24 licences                                                                                                                                                                                        

January                 Pirates that remain on air include Radio Dublin, Premier Radio, Radio City 105 and K 104. Outside                                         Dublin there was  Radio North. Zee 103, Borderside Weekend Radio, Rainbow Radio, Laser 89 and Radio                             Star County

              

February 1989

                                                                                                                                                                                   

February  1st       Ray Burke, the Minister announces that the new Radio and TV licences will generate 600 jobs                                                                                                                                                                                   

February  1st       Eamon Cooke wins another seven day extension to the injunction against the ESB and P&T for the

cutting of services to the pirate station                                                                                                                                                                                            

February  2nd      Dorothy Hayden Cudahy known as the 'First Lady of Irish Radio' in the US, chosen as Grand Marshall for the

New York St Patricks Day parade. She died in August 2010                                                                                                                                                                                          

February  3rd       Waterford newspapers announce that local pirate station Laser 1989 has gone off the air                                                                                                                                                                                       

February  6th       Radio Dublin lose their Supreme Court challenge                                                                                                                                                                                           

February  7th       Radio Dublin is raided.                                                                                                                                                                                          

February  8th       3.05pm Radio Dublin comes back on the air                                                                                                                                                                                    

February  11th     7.30am and Radio Dublin is raided again                                                                                                                                                                                          

February 15th      It is announced that after ten years (November 1980) Declan Meehan was returning to RTE Radio 2                                                                                                                                                                                        

February 16th      The IRTC hold submissions conference for the two Dublin Franchises                                                                                                                                                                                       

February  20th     NIHE student radio takes to the air with an IRTC licence                                                                                                                                                                                               

February 21st      IRTC hearings held in Cork for the Cork and Kerry franchises, there are 13 bids for 4 licences                                                                                                                                                                                     

February  21st     It is announced that the late Sir Terry Wogan was joining the board of Century Radio                                                                                                                                                                                                  

February  22nd    The transmission fee row between Century and RTE intensifies                                                                                                                                                                                                 

February  23rd     Radio 2000 and Capital Radio win the two franchises for Dublin                                                                                                                                                                                                

March 1989

 

March    8th         Hearing for the Limerick franchise take place at Jurys Hotel. There are 6 applicants                                                                                                                                                                                   

March    16th       Sunshine Radio wins judicial review into the awarding of the Radio 2000 licence in Dublin due to Fred

O'Donovan's connection with the Radio 2000 application as his participation as a member of the                                IRTC                                                                                                                                                                                              

March    16th       Cork Media Enterprises awarded the Cork City franchise, WKLR win the county Cork                                                              franchise                                                                                                                                                                                                 

April 1989

April       12th       TV 3 win third TV licence franchise                                                                                                                                                                                     

April       30th       Millennium Radio Closes in Dublin                                                                                                                                                                                     

May 1989                                                                                                                                          

May        12th       The Courts clear the way for Radio 2000 to open as Capital Radio following a review application from

Sunshine Radio boss Robbie Robinson                                                                                                                                                                                             

May        24th       According to Oliver Barry he handed over €35,000 to the Communications Minister Ray                                                           Burke                                                                                                                                                                                                

June 1989

June                      Borderside Weekend Radio renamed as Summertime Sounds                                                                                                                                                                                    

June       1st/2nd Oral hearings in the Prince of Wales Hotel, Athlone for licence applications in the midlands and the                                         West                                                                                                                                                                                         

June       19th       Suirland Radio awarded Tipperary South East Franchise, Carlow/South Kildare Radio Limited awarded                                  the Carlow Kildare franchise and Tipperary Community Radio for the Tipperary South West area            

 

July 1989

                                                                                                                                                                    

July         8th         3M awarded licence for the Laois, Offaly and Westmeath area                                                                                                                                                                                   

July         20th       Capital Radio launches on 104.4 in Dublin                                                                                                                                                                                        

July         24th       Midwest Radio comes on air in Castlebar, Co. Mayo                                                                                                                                                                                      

August 1989                                                                                                                                               

August   2nd        Highland Radio awarded the contract for Donegal and Cavan/Monaghan Broadcasting services Limited

awarded contract for Cavan/Monaghan                                                                                                                                                                                          

August   9th         First test transmissions from WCBS Galway on 96.8mhz                                                                                                                                                                                              

August   10th       Radio South later renamed as Cork 96 is launched                                                                                                                                                                                         

August   12th       First test transmission for Atlantic 252                                                                                                                                                                                             

August   18th       Radio West is launched in Galway renamed in as Galway Bay FM                                                                                                                                                                                              

September 1989

September 1st     Atlantic 252 is launched                                                                                                                                                                                       

September 4th     Century goes on air                                                                                                                                                                                               

September 8th    The legal version of Waterford Local Radio comes on air                                                                                                                                                                                              

September 10th  Clare FM launched by President Patrick Hillary broadcasting on 95-96mhz                                                                                                                                                                                             

September 15th  CKR launches on 97.3mhz from Carlow                                                                                                                                                                                            

October 1989

October 20th       South East Radio launches on 99.2mhz from Wexford                                                                                                                                                                                                 

October 21st       Horizon Launches in Bray later merges with Easy to becomes todays East Coast Radio                                                                                                                                                                                        

October 22nd      Michael Lennon becomes the first voice on Radio Kilkenny. Minister Ray Burke officially launched

the station. The station lost its licence in 1996                                                                                                                                                                                               

October 31st       Kerry Community Radio Limited awarded local radio franchise with former RTE producer Dan Collins

appointed Managing Director                                                                                                                                                                                             

November 1989

November            Pirate station Breffni Radio in Cavan comes back on air.                                                                                                                                                                                               

November 5th     Radio Limerick One is launched                                                                                                                                                                                          

November 10th   Dublin's second station 98FM is launched                                                                                                                                                                                        

November 13th   The Launch of Shannonside                                                                                                                                                                                                

November 20th   Suirland Radio launches in Clonmel                                                                                                                                                                                   

November 21st    Breffni Radio at Kilnaleck, Cavan raided                                                                                                                                                                                            

                              Eamon Cooke marries Jane Conlon in Blackpool registry office                                                                                                                                                                                   

November 22nd  Patrick McDonagh found not guilty of stealing aerial equipment from Radio West and attaching it to his

mobile home.                                                                                                                                                                                          

Decemeber 1989

              

December 1st      Breffni Radio raided again at Kilnaleck studios and transmission site at Ardkill Mountain                                                                                                                                                                                                

December 2nd     Belfast Telegraph advertisements for staff for Belfast Community Radio due on air in early 1990                                                                                                                                                                                

December 7th      Radio Na G dispute sees 25 journalists suspended, members of NUJ                                                                                                                                                                                         

December 8th      Capital Radio concedes that they are not meeting their 20% news and current affairs requirements                                                                                                                                                                                          

December 15th   IRTC decide not to award license to the North Tipperary franchise area                                                                                                                                                                                    

December 16th   Suspensions lifted at Radio Na G                                                                                                                                                                                        

December 16th   The Southern Star reports that Minister Burke wants to divert some of RTE's license fee to subsidise the

independent sector.

 

That was the year 1989 in Irish radio.